Twitter Teases 'Embedded Tweets' to Some Mobile Users

Twitter's (hopefully) making tweets you reference a lot easier to view  on its mobile apps, at least.

A tweet inside a tweet? Sounds complicated. And not all that interesting, given that you're free to slap all the tweets you want inside your existing Twitter posts right now. Sure, you'll have to do it the boring way  either quoting the tweet itself, or adding your commentary around a retweet, or simply throwing the URL to the twitter post you're referencing inside the tweet you're composing.

Well, for a little while longer, at least.

According to a report from The Next Web, Twitter seems to be testing a new tweet-embedding functionality for a subset of its mobile users. It often does this with new features it's considering rolling out to the service at large  and yes, it's for some mobile users only right now. The new embedding trick doesn't seem to work via Twitter's Web-based interface.

Here's how it works: If you want to "embed" a tweet within your tweet, which is literally just that  a smaller, graphical version of the tweet you're referencing built right below your tweet's text  then all you have to do is slap the link of the tweet you're referencing in the body of your tweet itself. If the embedding functionality works for you, you'll get a lovely new presentation of the message you're referencing instead of just an ugly-looking URL.

Well, assuming you tap your finger on the tweet in question via Twitter's iOS or Android apps. According to Engadget, you'll have to tap on each tweet in order to see the new embedded layout  within the normal Twitter timeline, the "embeds" will show up as normal URLs.

Twitter hasn't yet commented on what it's up to with the new embedding feature. That includes any hints as to when it might roll out to more users or platforms.

The functionality shouldn't be confused with Twitter's other "embedding" functionality, whereby one can take Twitter messages and slap them within one's website in a lovely presentational display. Twitter already has a huge chunk of information about how to do so on its website; if you're searching for the other way to "embed" tweets, as we've described above, you're going to be a bit out of luck.

Let us know if you have the capacity to view embedded tweets via your iOS or Android app.

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he has since rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors.
His rise to (self-described) fame in the world of tech journalism began during his stint as an associate editor at Maximum PC, where his love of cardboard-based PC construction and meetings put him in...
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